Linum trigynum

Turner, Ian M., 2015, The botanical legacy of Thomas Hardwicke’s journey to Srinagar in 1796, European Journal of Taxonomy 108, pp. 1-25 : 7

Linum trigynum

Hardwicke’s description of this species is brief:

“It is perennial, shrubby, grows to a spreading bush about four feet high, stem and branches erect, slender, piped. It makes a handsome appearance with its numerous yellow flowers ...”

But I believe that it is adequate to validate Roxburgh’s name Linum trigynum . It was accepted as such by botanists of this period. However, it is an illegitimate later homonym of the name of a European flax species described by Linnaeus. Dumortier (1822) described the same plant under the name Reinwardtia indica , which is the correct name for the species. Reichenbach (1837) effectively provided Macrolinum trigynum as a new name for L. trigynum Roxb. ex Hardw. Abdulla (1972) treated Linum trigynum and Reinwardtia indica as homotypic and referred to Roxburgh’s icon no. 1048 at Kew as the type. This is effectively a neotypification as neither Hardwicke nor Dumortier are likely to have seen Roxburgh’s drawing before publication of their respective names. I have not found any herbarium material of Reinwardtia indica collected by Hardwicke. There are two drawings in the British Library collection (Vol. XVI nos. 1 and 2). Drawing no. 1 has little information on it. Drawing no. 2 is good with detailed floral dissections. It is annotated ‘Futtehghur Dec 1796 ’ and ‘a native of Sireenagur’. Futtehghur (Fatehgarh) was the departure point for the journey to Srinagar and its final destination. Hardwicke appears to have completed his writing up of the botanical material at Futtehghur ( Britten 1906), so drawing no. 2 can be considered original material and is here selected as lectotype for Linum trigynum Roxb. ex Hardw. to supersede the neotypification of Abdulla. The drawing appears to be the basis of the plate (t. 17) in Smith’s Exotic Botany. Dumortier did not cite any specimens of R. indica , and there are no specimens in BR (S. De Smedt, pers. comm.). I therefore select Smith’s plate as the lectotype for Reinwardtia indica as it was the only direct citation of an illustration by Dumortier, which again replaces Abdulla’s typification.